Tech

Drobo Mini, the Sophisticated Backup System In a Small Package [REVIEW]

Want to back up your Mac or PC in the fastest and safest possible way? The Drobo Mini is scarcely larger than your hand, and with its Thunderbolt ports, it can back up boatloads of data at blazing speed. We received one here for review, loaded it up to the hilt with fast drives and took it for a spin.

Attached directly to your Mac or PC, it can either automatically backup your drive on a regular basis, or it's fast enough to use as another drive. And, because it has redundant disks, it protects your data even if one (or even two) of the disks inside fails.

Using fast Thunderbolt ports is a great benefit of the Drobo Mini. Currently available on newer Macs (and only a tiny number of PCs so far), it transfers data almost at the same speed as the disk can crank it out. This we had to try, so we fired up our MacBook Pro with Retina display and connected the Drobo Mini, which contained four 750GB 2.5-inch notebook drives. If you don't have a Mac, you can still use the Drobo Mini on a PC via a USB 3.0 port, which won't be quite as fast.

Failsafe Backup

One reason this system is so well-suited for backup is that it offers extra protection when you have multiple disks on board. Say you've placed four drives into this unit, and one of them fails. The Drobo is using a system it calls BeyondRAID, which can retrieve the data from the other drives and reconstruct it for you, so you won't lose a thing.

You can even select dual-drive redundancy, where even if two drives fail, you'll still have all your data. The downside? With single-drive redundancy, half of your disk space will be taken up by this tricky scheme, and if you choose dual drive redundancy, even more disk space is required, and it's slightly slower. Here's our results, where we tested the speed of both modes, and compared that with the speed of the MacBook Pro's solid-state drive:

This is a seriously sophisticated system. For example, there's an option to install an 80GB solid-state flash memory card into the bottom of the unit, which functions as a data accelerator, giving you what Drobo calls a "hot data cache," or superfast access to often-used data without having to dip into the slower spinning drives. And even without that optional drive, if there's a power failure, the Drobo Mini kicks into battery power, holding whatever data you were transferring at the time, and then keeping the drive running on battery power long enough to place that data safely onto the disk drives. And the battery? It recharges itself when the power is restored. Cool.

We enjoyed using this little enclosure, with its color-coded lights surrounding its front face, telling us the status of the drives within. We also liked the way you can hot-swap the drives, taking one out and putting in a larger one even while the system is running. And we appreciate its easy portability, its 7-inch-square size not too big to slip into a laptop bag, although it does weigh nearly 3 pounds when fully loaded.

The Price is Wrong

With the system this powerful and capable, you'd expect it to be expensive, and you'd be right. That's the downside of the Drobo Mini, where the enclosure itself costs $649. But that's just the beginning. The 2.5-inch notebook drives we installed for testing, Seagate Momentus 7500 RPM 750GB drives, cost $75, and that's the lowest price we could find online. In addition, the small solid-state drive that gives you that nifty data acceleration feature will run you another $75 (update: keep checking all these drive prices online — they're changing fast). Total price of the system as tested: a cool $1,024. Ouch. It'll cost you even more if you'd like to put solid-state drives inside, but then your backup speed will be much faster. But keep in mind, you can put any storage you want into the Drobo Mini, as long as they're 2.5-inch drives.

For someone who has to deal with lots of data, and wants to be sure none of it is lost to the vagaries of hard disk failures, this is an ideal system. It's especially useful if portability is important to you. If you do lots of video editing, you'll feel like you've just gotten a gigantic walk-in closet for all of your clips and finished videos. Best of all, you can rest easy knowing that your data is backed up and is as safe as it can possibly be.

Drobo Mini

Drobo Mini

Check out the backlighting surrounding the front of the Drobo Mini. It's color-coded to show you the status of the drive, including how much space you have left.

Drobo Mini, Back View

There are two Tthunderbolt ports in the back, as well as a USB 3.0 port and a power plug that securely screws into the unit.

Drobo Mini, Drives Inside

Remove the front plate, and there are four bays in which you can place four 2.5-inch laptop drives. You can choose either spinning disks or solid-state drives.

Drobo Mini, Bottom View

You have the option to install a solid-state flash memory card here, giving you even more redundancy. If the power goes out, it uses battery power and sends data to the drive. It also functions as a data accelerator.

Seagate Momentus 2.5-inch Drive

Here's one of those 2.5-inch Seagate Momentus 7500rpm 750GB drives.

Installing a Drive in the Drobo Mini

We installed four of these drives into the Drobo Mini, a simple process of sliding them into the bay.

Drobo Mini Dashboard

This easy-to-use software, available for Mac or PC, gives you complete control over the Drobo Mini.

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